DABC holiday office closure and year-end fundraising update

Dear DABC community,

Happy Holidays!

Please note that Disability Alliance BC will be closed for the holidays from Monday, December 23rd, 2024 – Friday, January 3rd, 2025. Our office will reopen on Monday, January 6th. During this time, we will only be responding to very urgent messages. All other messages will receive a response as soon as possible after we reopen.

Year-End Fundraising Update

Between the spirit of holiday gifting and annual tax planning, December is THE top month for charitable giving each year, accounting for more than a quarter of donations annually to all nonprofits. With the postal strike having put a hold on donations by mail during this usually busiest time for philanthropy, we’re calling on you, our online supporters, to help us bridge this gap with a strong fundraising finish to 2024.

So far this year, thanks to your support DABC has raised $26,647.25 from 263 individual donations. That’s an awesome groundswell of goodwill that has us within reach of a record-breaking $30,000 from 300 donors!

Will you join us now in making this DABC’s best fundraising year ever? No donation is too large or too small to make a difference for people living with disabilities. You can donate here: https://give-can.keela.co/dabc.

With the new Canada Disability Benefit looming on the horizon in 2025, our advocacy is reaching new heights of urgency and impact as the disability community grows and policies strain to meet increasing needs.

Some accomplishments we couldn’t have achieved without your support this year include: updating our online tool for those applying for the Disability Tax Credit, advocating for the removal of the spousal cap for those on provincial disability assistance (and the Province agreeing to work on this as noted in their 2024 Poverty Reduction Strategy), and translating our Help Sheets and CPP-D Guides into four other languages: Arabic, Persian, Punjabi and Spanish.

We send our heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you for being a part of our movement, and appreciate any and all financial support at this important time for the disability community and movement for inclusion and equity across BC.

From all of us here at DABC, wishing you and yours a happy and peaceful holiday season!

BC NDP Response to DABC's Election Asks

As we reported in late September, DABC prepared a document that aims to highlight key election issues within the disability community and advocates for a provincial government that actively includes people with disabilities in shaping the future of our province. You can download it here: https://disabilityalliancebc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/DABC-Key-Election-Priorities.docx.

Within the document, we also identified our election asks and categorized them into 5 key priority areas. The election priorities were distributed to each political party.

We have received a response from the BC NDP, which can be downloaded here or read below:

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Dear Helaine Boyd and Members of DABC,

Thank you for submitting these important questions to us. Disability Alliance BC does critical work across BC to advocate for people with disabilities in our communities. Throughout our response, you will see us use “people with disabilities” and “disabled people” interchangeably, recognizing that we don’t have the opportunity to ask readers what they prefer, and our disabled NDP membership uses both.

This is a pivotal moment in our province – David Eby and the BC NDP are working hard to ensure that equity-deserving groups have a government that respects their rights, cares about their needs, and prioritizes their interests.

We have more work to do to ensure people with disabilities in BC can enjoy the same opportunities as people without disabilities. When our BC NDP government passed the Accessible BC Act, we knew this was an important step, and part of work that has been underway for decades – led by people with lived experience and disability-serving organizations.

The work led by our Accessibility Directorate and Advisory Committee laid the foundation for further action in the upcoming years. Some of the BC NDP’s plans are detailed explicitly in our platform. Other commitments, if we are elected, would come out of continued work to implement the Accessible BC Act.

Poverty Reduction

The BC NDP recognizes that for a variety of reasons, people with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty. We’re determined to see disabled British Columbians enjoy full inclusion in their communities. The Province’s obligations are now enshrined in law.

We will adjust spousal clawbacks and ensure British Columbians continue to receive the full level of benefits provided by the Government of Canada. There are further measures identified in the 2024 Poverty Reduction Strategy that we intend to explore, if elected.

Due to rising interest rates, corporate gouging, and inflation, many people across BC are struggling with affordability, which we’ve emphasized throughout our platform. In addition to making life more affordable and avoiding unnecessary costs for all, we’re excited about what our move toward efficient and effective government could do in the area of accessibility. We’re concerned by the amount of time and energy people with disabilities use to navigate services that are intended to make life easier. We plan to work with disabled people, groups like DABC, and our Accessibility Directorate to ensure that our plans to modernize government also address accessibility issues.

A Conservative government under John Rustad is a risk we can’t afford. DABC was there when John  Rustad was a cabinet minister with the BC Liberals for many years and made life much harder for people with disabilities. For nine years, disability rates under his government remained stagnant, and many disability-related services and supports were cut completely. When bus passes for disabled people were revoked, many people, families and supporters protested at the legislature. Their voices were ignored. This would be the type of government that we would expect under John Rustad.

If elected, we hope to continue working with you to prevent poverty for people with disabilities and support those who are already experiencing it.

Transit

Getting people in BC where they need to go, quickly and easily, is a key priority within our NDP platform. It will help us meet our climate goals and will allow people to spend less time in traffic.

If elected, a BC NDP government would connect our communities through expanded rapid transit options, and make it more affordable for people to take public transit. The people within this province are diverse, and the way we get from A to B is diverse, too. For those who need to drive, we’ll take care of core infrastructure to reduce road congestion, and we’ll improve active transportation for people that can’t or don’t drive, for whatever reason. Ensuring that universal design principles are incorporated into transit planning has been identified as a key government priority in response to the Accessible BC Act, and this is something we’re keen to explore for upcoming transit projects.

As part of our platform, we’ve also determined that HandyDART will be government operated, which will ensure that when issues arise, government can take action to resolve them and prevent further issues in the future.

Housing

The delivery of suitable and secure housing for people with disabilities is a priority area for us. When our NDP government passed the Accessible BC Act, BC Housing was selected as a pilot organization to respond to the Act and report back on progress. Early measures were completed with the understanding that engagement work would continue.

We intend to increase the supply of suitable housing by using the BC Building Code, which will require all new housing units to be adaptable, starting spring of 2025. At least 5% of homes built through provincial funding must be fully wheelchair accessible. All common amenity spaces must also be fully wheelchair accessible.

The BC NDP platform includes further funding for non-market housing, and we’re in the process of determining how this funding will be used.

Finally, we’re working to improve housing for people with disabilities that live with a caregiver. The BC NDP will improve homeshare rates through Community Living BC. This also opens up opportunities for more people with disabilities to stay with their loved ones.

Healthcare

The BC NDP agrees that healthcare is an equity issue. When we formed government in 2017, one of our first priorities was to get rid of unfair MSP fees, which had been doubled under John Rustad and his old BC Liberal government. Since becoming leader of the BC NDP, David Eby has been taking action to train and hire more doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers than ever before.. We’ve connected 248,000 people to a family doctor or nurse practitioner since July 2023 – with 160,000 more matched in the next six months. With this pace, we will make sure everyone who wants a family doctor or nurse practitioner gets one by the end of 2025.

We are committed to bringing down costs for people in rural, remote, and First Nation communities who need to travel for specialist health care services by expanding the Travel Assistance Program to include mileage for car travel. And we’ll cover travel expenses before they’re due for payment, so people aren’t paying out of pocket and waiting for a refund.

Our platform also includes expanded access to mental health supports and counselling, including a fund to increase services in the community. We’re also committing to increased mental health supports in schools, increased support staff in schools, and better programming for students with disabilities.

Discrimination in healthcare was already illegal before the Accessible BC Act was passed, but there will be further opportunities to make service delivery more accessible through its continued implementation. The BC NDP government’s decision to restore the BC Human Rights Commission, gutted by Rustad’s previous government,  is another tool to help combat discrimination in all its forms.

John Rustad’s Conservatives plan is to cut billions from the healthcare budget, privatize services, and invest in corporate profits instead of people. This would hurt us all, but for people who use our healthcare system to manage ongoing conditions, this approach would be especially hard on them and their families.

We know there’s more work to do, which is why we can’t risk losing the progress we’ve made. Healthcare should always be there when you need it. And David Eby won’t stop until the job is done.

We look forward to working together to strengthen healthcare in BC.

Accessible BC Act

If elected, we would continue to work on implementing the Accessible BC Act with the guidance of people with lived experience and organizations that support people with disabilities in the community.

The BC NDP will also continue to work with people with disabilities to implement the first two standards – Accessible Service Delivery and Employment Accessibility – which will remove barriers for people with disabilities to access services and goods, and to prevent barriers in hiring, training and retention.

All relevant organizations must uphold their obligations under the Accessibility Act, which does not permit organizations to hold off on implementation until they receive a specialized pool of funding. At the same time, a BC NDP government would work through the Directorate to ensure that organizations are resourced to meet expectations across the board – including equitable and accessible services for disabled British Columbians.

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For context, these are the questions that DABC asked the provincial parties:

PETITION: Disability Alliance BC Calls for Transparency in BC’s Ventilator Allocation Framework

We are concerned that BC’s policy for who gets ventilators does not take human rights and equity principles into account. BC has not released its policy about this, and we think they should.

BACKGROUND

In 2020, DABC learned that the BC Ministry of Health had developed a draft framework for allocating ventilators and other critical life-saving medical equipment if demand for those resources surged beyond their supply. In other words, if we were to run out of ventilators, who would decide who gets to use what we have, and who does not, and how would that decision be made?

We believe it is in the public’s interest to know what is in the draft framework and to be allowed to provide comment and feedback.

Also in 2020, DABC became aware of serious human rights concerns raised by disability and human rights advocates in response to a draft critical care triage protocol created by the Ontario Ministry of Health which was circulated to hospitals. ARCH Disability Law Centre submitted an Open Letter to Government on needed changes to that protocol, signed by 204 organizations, and 4,828 individuals.

DABC expressed our concerns in a public letter to Minister of Health Adrian Dix on April 8, 2020. In particular, we made the following statements:

• People with disabilities must not be deprioritized for critical care based on their disabilities, or on the supports they receive for daily living.
• Decisions about who receives critical care should be made using objective clinical criteria directly associated with mortality risks and must not be based on stereotypes or assumptions about a person’s disability and longer-term mortality rates.
• Some people with disabilities need accommodation and assistance. The fact that a person requires such support should not be a factor in decisions about whether they should receive critical care. These kinds of criteria are discriminatory and devalue the lives of people with disabilities.

A copy of this letter can be seen here. DABC did not receive any framework in response to our open letter.

In response to ARCH’s open letter, the government of Ontario facilitated significant consultation with human rights experts and disability rights advocates. The Critical Care Triage framework was revised multiple times to incorporate recommendations such as expanding the guiding ethical principles to include equality and respect for human rights, and transparency and accountability in decision-making.

In May 2020, DABC submitted a Freedom of Information request to BC’s Ministry of Health to access the Ventilator Allocation Framework in its final or draft form. In 2022, we updated our request for the same information.

Over two years after our initial request, we received a set of documents representing nearly 1,400 pages of information. No frameworks were included in the records DABC received, with the Ministry claiming several exemptions to DABC’s public right of access.

We have made a complaint and are proceeding to formal inquiry at the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of BC. The inquiry process is ongoing.

CALL TO ACTION

We believe it is in the public interest to know what is in the Draft Ventilator Allocation Framework and to be allowed to provide feedback. If you also believe it is in the public interest to know what is in the framework and to be allowed to provide feedback, we urge you to click on the link below to sign this statement:

https://win.newmode.net/disabilityalliancebc/dabccallsfortransparencyinventilatorallocationframework

We, the undersigned, share grave concerns regarding BC Ministry of Health’s Draft Ventilator Allocation Framework, which has yet to be released to the public. We write in particular to underscore the disproportionate and adverse impact that the Draft Ventilator Allocation Framework could have on people with disabilities, and the need to ensure the framework properly respects the human rights of all people in British Columbia. We believe it is in the public interest to know what is in the Draft Framework and to be allowed to provide feedback.

With your contribution in signing this petition, DABC hopes to demonstrate that there is public interest in having the Draft Ventilator Allocation Framework made available for public consultation.

Organizations are also welcome to sign on to this petition separately, and will be listed on this page to mark their public support.

List of Signatory Organizations:

• Centre for Family Equity
• VRS Communities
• Canadian Drug Policy Coalition
• BC Poverty Reduction Coalition
• Victoria Disability Resource Centre
• Qmunity
• Plan Institute
• Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network
• UNITI
• Wavefront Centre for Communication Accessibility
• Qmunity
• Community Legal Assistance Society
• Together Against Poverty Society
• Technology For Living (Provincial Respiratory Outreach Program – PROP)

TIMELINE

More details about the process we have engaged in so far are included below.

The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) process:

May 19, 2020: We sent a request to the Ministry of Health for the following (“FOI Request #1”):

Copy of the provincial ventilator allocation framework and any other policy related to how ventilators and other life-saving and sustaining medical resources may be allocated in the event that demand for those resources exceeds supply. I am also seeking any and all records related to the development and drafting of any such framework or policy. (Date Range for Record Search: From 1/1/2012 To 5/18/2020)

May 2, 2022: The Ministry provided records that were almost entirely redacted, to the point that we could not make sense of them. We were told that various documents had been withheld pursuant to the following exceptions outlined in the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA):

• Policy advice or recommendations (s 13)
• Legal Advice (s 14)
• Disclosure harmful to law enforcement (s 15)
• Disclosure harmful to intergovernmental relations or negotiations (s 16)
• Disclosure harmful to the financial or economic interests of a public body (s 17)
• Disclosure harmful to personal privacy (s 22)

When the provincial government releases records pursuant to a Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act request, those records are typically then posted on the “Open Information” page: Open information – Province of British Columbia (gov.bc.ca).

Contrary to normal practice, the records that were released to us were not released on this page.

Based on what little we could see in the redacted documents, it appeared to us that a draft framework had been prepared in 2012 but that draft had never been finalized. We were not able to see the content of the draft framework, as it was redacted.

May 31, 2022: We filed a request to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC (“OIPC”) to review the response we had been provided.

December 14, 2022: An OIPC investigator was assigned to conduct a mediation of our request for review.

February 2023: Through conversations with the OIPC officer assigned to review our case we indicated that if we received an unredacted version of the 2012 draft Ventilator Allocation Framework, we would withdraw our request for review.

February 15, 2023: The Ministry wrote to us following our request to have their response reviewed. They provided no additional information, but informed us that additional exceptions were required where information was already withheld.

March 7, 2023: We heard from the OIPC that the Ministry had advised that the 2012 Ventilator Allocation Framework was in draft form and was slated to go before cabinet so could not be released to us in unredacted form. We informed the OIPC we wished the matter to proceed to an inquiry.

March 17, 2023: We informed the OIPC that we wanted to focus the inquiry on two specific documents: the 2012 ventilator allocation framework, and the draft ventilator allocation framework given to Dr. Bonnie Henry on April 30, 2020, which had been fully redacted when released to us.

March 29, 2023: We received the Investigator’s Fact Report from the OIPC Investigator.

June 16, 2023: The OIPC informed us that the review period for our file had been extended to facilitate an inquiry.

November 16, 2023: We received notice from the OIPC that they would be holding a written inquiry to determine whether the Ministry was authorized to refuse to disclose the information at issue under ss. 13, 14, and 17 of FIPPA.

November 30, 2023: We requested that the OIPC inquiry process consider not only whether the Ministry was authorized to refuse to disclose the information at issue, but also

(1) whether it had met its obligations to assist the application under s 6 of FIPPA (“Duty to Assist Applicants”), and

(2) whether it was required to disclose the information at issue under s 25 of FIPPA (“Information Must be Disclosed if it is in the Public Interest”)

December 7, 2023: The Ministry objected to adding s 6 and s 25 to the inquiry process and requested that we provide detailed reasons for adding these sections to the inquiry so that they could respond.

February 26, 2024: We provided detailed reasons for adding s 6 and s 25 to the inquiry.

We argued that it was clearly in the public interest to know how limited life-saving and life-sustaining resources were allocated in the past and would be allocated in the event of another pandemic. We also said the requested information would contribute to educating the public and particularly people with disabilities about the risks they will likely face in the event of another public health emergency

March 12, 2024: The Ministry responded to our detailed reasons of February 26.

April 10, 2024: The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC issued a decision regarding our request to add s 6 and s 25 to the inquiry. They declined to allow us to add s 6 to the inquiry. They allowed s 25 to be added to the inquiry.

April 11, 2024: The Ministry confirmed that some of the records they had withheld included an April 28, 2020 Draft Emergency Triage in a Pandemic Ventilator Allocation Framework.

June 11, 2024: The OIPC issue a new Notice of Inquiry clarifying the new issues. The inquiry was now proceeding to determine whether the public body:

(1) is required to refuse to disclose the information at issue under s. 12(1) FIPPA (“Cabinet and local body confidences”);

(2) is authorized to refuse to disclose the information at issue under ss. 13 (“Policy advice or recommendations”), 14 (“legal advice”), 17(1)(c) and (d) (“Disclosure harmful to the financial or economic interests of a public body”) of FIPPA;

(3) The adjudicator will consider the applicant’s assertion that section 25(1) (“Information Must be Disclosed if it is in the Public Interest”) requires the disclosure of information, clearly in the public interest, in the records responsive to the applicant’s requests.

August 23, 2024: The Ministry wrote a letter saying that an additional exception was required on information that was already withheld. Section 12 (“Cabinet and local body confidences) was added to the relevant pages. It also indicated that all severance done pursuant to section 17  (“Disclosure harmful to the financial or economic interests of a public body”) had been removed. Most of the information severed under section 17 was now severed under section 12 or section 13. Section 13 (“Policy advice or recommendations”) severance had been removed on some documents and replaced with section 12. We also received the Ministry’s inquiry submissions on August 23. The submissions defend the Ministry’s severance of the documents, but do not explain why documents previously severable due to section 17 are now severable due to section 13 or 12. The Ministry has submitted that sharing the draft frameworks is not in the public interest because British Columbia has not come close to a healthcare surge that has required a ventilator allocation framework to be implemented.

The Second FOI Request

After making our request in May 2020 and not receiving any substantive documents, we made a second request in March 2023 (“FOI Request #2”). We assumed that any drafts that were in effect in May 2020 could have been revised or finalized in the intervening period and we wanted to make a request that would give us access to those revised and/or finalized policies.

Note: there is overlap in the timelines of FOI Requests #1 and #2.

March 23, 2023: We made a second request for information seeking updated information (“FOI Request #2”). The text of our request was:

For the period of May 19, 2020-March 22, 2023 I am requesting:

1. A copy of the current provincial ventilator allocation framework and
2. Any current policy related to how ventilators and other life-saving and – sustaining medical resources may be allocated in the event that demand for those resources exceeds supply.

According to FIPPA the Ministry has a deadline of 30 days to respond to a request.

The Ministry made three requests for extensions to this timeline, resulting in a deadline of August 2, 2024 to provide the documents.

December 22, 2023: The Ministry released the requested documents to us.

A copy of what was provided to us can be seen here: Catalogue details page – Province of British Columbia (gov.bc.ca)

We were informed that some of the information had been withheld pursuant to the below sections of FIPPA:

• section(s) 12 (“Cabinet and local body confidences”),
• s 13 (“Policy advice or recommendations”),
• s 14 (“Legal Advice”), and
• s 17 (“Disclosure harmful to the financial or economic interests of a public body”)

The file released to us was 3 pages long. There are two sets of records referred to within those three pages. One of these is 174 pages (Set A).  The other is 31 pages (Set B).

With respect to Set A, we received part of p. 142 of 174. It appears to be the cover page of the Province’s Emergency Triage in Pandemic Ventilator Allocation Framework.  It is dated April 28/20 and marked DRAFT. Some information of the cover page has been redacted per ss.13, 14, and 17 of FOIPPA.  We did not receive any other pages in Set A.

The entirety of each page of Set B has been withheld per ss. 12 and 13.

February 6, 2024: We made a request to the OIPC to review the Ministry’s release of information to us, saying that we:

• did not believe that the Ministry had met its obligations under s 4(2) (”Information rights”), 6(1) (“Duty to assist applicants”), 8 (“Contents of response”) or 10 (“Extending the time limit for responding”) of FIPPA;
• the sections the Ministry had cited permitting them to withhold records did not justify the complete redaction of such a large portion of the records requested, and
• did not believe that the head of the public body had met its obligations under s 25(1) of FIPPA (“Information must be disclosed if in the public interest”)

April 26, 2024: We received confirmation from the OIPC that they had opened a file to review our complaint that the public body did not disclose records in the public interest, pursuant to s 25 of FIPPA.

July 5, 2024: The OIPC assigned an investigator to review our complaints.

The investigation process is ongoing.